I wrote this book for several reasons. Many of the books on running are tough to read, a lot like technical manuals. I wanted to offer something more personal, runner to runner. Moreover, I wanted it to be easy to read for the inexperienced runner. I think I have accomplished this with The Gift of Running.

Below is the official description. A small excerpt is included at the bottom of this page.

Running is a gift, but not only for the gifted. Whether you run just for fun or want to become a more competitive runner, The Gift of Running is for you. In The Gift of Running, P. Mark Taylor shows runners how to get started and stay motivated.

The book includes: advice on how to get started as a runner, tried & true methods of running faster and longer, how to prepare for a marathon, tips on staying healthy & happy, motivation to keep you running, an insider view of the running community, & training programs for a 5K, 10K, half marathon, & marathon.

P. Mark Taylor is a runner & author of the blog at www.WiseRunning.com.

Publication Date: Jul 20 2012

ISBN/EAN13: 0615668607 / 9780615668604

Page Count: 196

Binding Type: US Trade Paper

Trim Size: 5.5″ x 8.5″

Language: English

Color: Black and White

Related Categories: Sports & Recreation / Running & Jogging

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How to read this book: (an excerpt from the book)

“This book is not a technical manual. I have intentionally tried to keep my explanations brief and simple. I have avoided technical terms and explained what I mean whenever needed. It does offer important research-based information, but it offers more than that.

The book is about:

the human side of running,

becoming a runner,

working to become a better runner,

& staying safe, sane, and happy as a runner.

It moves back and forth between personal stories, quotes from runners, and advice on running.

Most of the subsections of the book could be read independently, but I encourage you to read it from front to back. This is especially true for the inexperienced runners. Read the whole thing first, then go enjoy the run!

This book is the culmination of years of running, studying, and life experiences. Most of all it is about the love of running and my respect for runners.

This book is dedicated to all of those who share my passion for running & to all those who are trying running for the first time.”

When I was young, I stretched because my coaches told me to stretch. I have never been that flexible, but I never really understood the benefits. Here are the things that we are typically told about stretching:

Stretching prior to any type of exercise gets the muscles ready for the more intense exercise that follows.

A well-stretched muscle moves through a full range of motion with less effort. Therefore, stretching prior to physical activity will help you conserve energy and thereby improve performance.

Because our muscles get cold and tight from hours of sitting or standing at our jobs, periodic stretching will keep the blood flowing and allow the muscles to move through a full range of motion.

A muscle is more flexible when it is warm and stretched, and it is less likely to tear or overstretch from an abrupt movement.

Stretching increases the blood supply to the muscles and joints. This keeps the muscles supple and healthy.

After a workout, stretching your muscles will keep them from immediately shortening and tightening as they cool down.

In high school, I ran both cross country and track. My cross country coach had us stretch before running and encouraged stretching after the workout. Our head track coach, however, made us run a mile first and then stretch. Both seem like pretty good ideas, but which is right? I have great respect for both of those coaches, so I am going to say that I agree with both coaches MOST of the time.

Right now, however, I am suffering a round of tight muscles in my calves. Over the past few weeks, when I stretched BEFORE the run it felt very artificial. My muscles would not stretch unless I forced them. Bad idea! They just would not budge until I pushed to the point of pain… and the led to more pain and more tightness. In short, stretching a muscle that will not cooperate is a bad idea.

Does that mean that I should run without stretching? I tried. Bad idea. It just forced the muscle to stretch under duress, just like stretching before the run. That led to worse pain and increased tightness.

How do you stretch a muscle that is firmly against the idea? Stretching first is bad and stretching after a mile is bad… where do you go from there?

The Technical Truth about Stretching

An extensive meta-analysis of the research on stretching reaches two unavoidable truths:

Static stretching, the old method of stretching and holding a stretch before your run, can reduce your power by as much as 5.5%.

Dynamic stretching through gentle movement and gradually attaining your full range of motion is much safer and more productive.

You can find a lot of dynamic stretching ideas out on the web, but here is what is working for me:

Warm up the sore & tight muscles by slowly and carefully moving through their comfortable range first. Not by running, but just gently going through your comfortable range of motion.

After the muscles begin to warm up, the comfortable range of motion will begin to gradually increase.

Take that warm-up/stretch combination as far as your muscles will comfortablyallow in a few minutes.

Begin to run at an easy pace and gradually increase your speed.

Stop to do a little more dynamic stretching if you feel the need.

This may not be new to you, but I was never told to warm up the muscle and stretch simultaneously. I suppose you could say that I am employing a combination of the advice of both of my high school head coaches. It just goes to show that the lesson that you teach to youth may be lost on them in the moment, but they can keep learning from that advice years later.

I continue to have some tension in those muscles, but it gets better every day. When my muscles rebel, I placate them with my new process of warm-up & stretching.

If you have been struggling with a tight muscle and just can’t find the right process to loosen it up, you might give it a try.

Be careful. Don’t overstretch.

_____________________

The other item to add is about devices for stretching. Here are the two products that I use to aid in the stretching process, not before a run but hours before or after. They are both designed to work out knots in your muscles by rolling – like rolling out dough with a rolling pin. You lay on the foam roller and use your body weight to apply pressure. A lot of runners have found relief. I most recently rescued my knees by using the foam roller.

“You will be faster in the long run by playing it smart and safe today.”

I really want to run today, but I will not.

I have lots of pent up energy to expend.
I need to unwind from my busy day.
I feel the need to get outside and feel the breeze.

I feel the need to run, but I will not.

Yesterday I felt some pain in my heel area. I have felt it on and off for a few weeks. On most days, it has gotten better once I warmed up. It has gotten better over time with a more careful stretching regimen and more careful running form. It got a little better each day, until yesterday. In my 7 of my tempo run yesterday, it started getting worse. I was supposed to run 9 miles yesterday, but I remembered the warning given by Hal Higdon:

“If you have pain at the beginning of a run and it gradually gets better, then keep running. If the pain gets worse as you go, then stop. Walk. Take a cab if you can.”

I was on the greenway and I didn’t have any cash on me anyway, so I did not take a cab. I did walk 3/4 of a mile to my car. I do not believe that I have a major injury, but that pain was a signal that major injury could be coming if I was not careful. That is why my planned 9 mile tempo run became a 7 miler with an extra slow walk at the end.

After I returned home, my foot got an ice bath and some time elevated. I took some ibuprofen and I looked at my running schedule. I decided that today and tomorrow would be short and easy run days. I have a half marathon on Saturday morning and I want to give this heel a rest.

This morning my heel was still feeling twinges of that pain. Hence, I made the tough decision to let go of the idea of running today. Full rest today, even though I had a rest day just two days ago. I looked at my mileage for the week and thought about how I could make up the miles later. No. Bad idea. I know better than that. It is better to let go of those lost miles. Full rest and consider those miles to be totally out of reach.

Yes, I will miss out on some of the adaptations that those miles could bring, some growth, some speed. I have to choose to let that go. That is speed that I will not gain for the marathon in March. I have to let that go.

Remember This!

It is better to spend a day or two healing now rather than a month or two later because I made it worse by running through the wrong kind of pain.

When it is muscle pain because I am shredding it in a workout, then run on. That will heal. You can tell the difference between healthy workout pain and unhealthy injury pain. Rest. Live to run another day. You will be faster in the long run by playing it smart and safe today.

___________

Train hard. Race easy. Enjoy the run!
[when you can safely]

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The Gift of Running,by P. Mark Taylor, is available in both paperback & e-book

Question 2 : How can I recover from plantar fasciitis while training for a race?

I have been running mainly on a treadmill and yesterday after 4 miles my foot started to hurt. I had been sensing PF for a while, and tried icing, switching shoes and so on. My plan is to take a week off, stretch, foam roll, ice, Advil and so on but is there recovery from something like this? I want to run this race so bad I feel it may be my last so I can focus on getting better since my prognosis has been dwindling.

P. Mark’s Answer: I understand your pain all too well! I have short calves, so I am always dealing with Plantar Fasciitis at some level. Every morning I spend the first 10 minutes trying to relax my calves enough to walk normally. It is 10 minutes of PF pain. It sounds like you are doing all of the right things with the stretching and icing…

I am not convinced that rest will really do the job. Rather than full rest, I would suggest running less and exercising your calves and feet more.

Most importantly, before you start running, your calves and feet need to be gently warmed up and as flexible as possible. Start by working through your range of motion at each joint while bearing no weight on those joints! Then, warm up the muscles through simple movements while bearing no weight on the legs. Finally, warm up the muscles while bearing weight.

If you take the time to do these things before a run, the damage to your plantar fascia should be greatly reduced and it should begin to heal, even while you are still running.

The one that really made the break-through and led to long-term healing, however, was “The Stick.” This tool was recommended several times by my cousin who works in the field of therapeutic massage and sports medicine. At first I resisted the notion that such a simple device could make a difference. After all, it just looks like a few pieces of plastic tubing and a stick with handles. After going through the list of tools and methods above, however, I was desperate!

I finally heeded my cousin’s advice and ordered The Stick from Amazon.com. My Stick arrived in less than a week. When it arrived I was both excited and disappointed. It was smaller than I had imagined and it really did look like another fad piece of health equipment.

Wow! Was I wrong! There were not many instructions given, a sentence or two of specifics, just one warning, and a lot of suggestions via pictures. Still, I had shelled out my $30, so it was time to try it. After I rolled my tense, sore calves for about 45 seconds I could already feel it working its magic. The Stick became my companion for the next week. I rolled my calves when I first got up out fo bed, before and after a workout, and right before going to sleep at night.

I still carry tension in my calves as I always have, but The Stick helps me roll a lot of that tension away. It is also great on cramps. I saw one on television the other day during a college football game. A trainer was working on the hamstring of the quarterback using The Stick. I may not be an elite athlete, but I treat myself like one.

I have never been able to easily touch my toes. Even when I was young and running the fastest times of my life, touching my toes was quite an ordeal. On many occasions, I have managed to overstretch and not be able to reach peak performance just because I wanted to touch my toes. Its probably because of my calves.

I have had several doctors tell me that my calves are too short. I went to an orthopedic specialist for my knee problems. He said that my knees would always be bad because of my short calves. He prescribed short mileage and no hills. Seriously? This is what you tell a cross country and road runner? You know I am not going to follow that advice, don’t you Doc?

Despite my issues with short, tight calf muscles, I put in many long runs training for marathons and I do hill work to get faster. The question is not whether or not to do these things. The question is how to manage the associated difficulties.

The things that everyone does, I need to do more carefully and better. Warm-up, stretch, start slow and ease into a rhythm. That is my routine when I am doing it right. Unfortunately, I lost my momentum on that and have been having difficulties for a few weeks. First, it was the soreness stemming from metabolic accumulation. Lactic acid and other waste products were not being removed as fast as they were being produced. I slowed down my running, but the tightness this caused continued the back-up.

I finally started stretching more carefully again and that begin to help. Unfortunately, I was so excited by the results that I became overzealous about stretching. My stretching fixed one problem and caused another. The tightness in my lower calves went away, but my plantar fasciitis was activated. I have faced this nemesis before, which may also possibly be related to my short calves.

My attention shifted to easing the pain and doing stretches for my plantar fasciitis. There are several great stretches, but I again went too far, too fast. Now I am nursing a sore spot at the bottom of my Achilles tendon on both legs.

This whole situation is a lot like the wreck that my daughter had on a rainy, winding road. She had let the car go a little to far towards the side of the road and over-corrected a little bit. The car was now over the yellow line with a car quickly approaching from the other direction. She finally ended up hitting a tree on the side of the road that she first tried to avoid.

The lesson that my daughter and I have both learned is that over-correcting to avoid a slight problem can lead to a much larger problem! A better strategy is to make small changes in your routine in order to correct problems. If a problem comes on gradually, the solution and healing process will also be gradual. Lesson learned!

Now, if I can follow my own advice, I should be running without any of these issues in about a week. Patience is not just a virtue. It is a necessity.